<TITLE>18. Par -</TITLE>L-83-154 A fellow come to me here sometime ago; I was preaching about... I said the other night. He come up to my house; he said, "Brother Branham, brother, I want--I want--I wanted to be... I want to get rid of my sins. I want to be a Christian." He set on my porch.
He said, "I heard about a great man, an internationally-known man by the name of Billy Graham." He said, "I went to his meetings and--and--and he said, 'All that wants to become a Christian, hold up your hand and accept Christ as personal Saviour.' So I raised up my hand. He said, 'Now, all stand have a prayer.' So I stayed and prayed just (Pardon me.)--just as sincere as I could be." He said, "And," said, "didn't do me any good."
He said, "Then I went down to--to Oral Roberts' meeting." He said, "I heard of him, and I heard they all had such joy." Said, "I went down to Oral Roberts and I asked him, 'What must I do to become a Christian?' He said, 'You get back in there...'  I told him I had held up my hand at Billy Graham's. He said, 'You stay in that inquiry room in there until you're so happy you speak with tongues.'" He said, "I went in there and I prayed till I spoke with tongues." Said, "I come out, didn't do me any good."

L-84-157 He said, "And then I went to another meeting, and they told me I hadn't been sanctified yet, said I have to get sanctified and get happy and shout, get enough joy. So I prayed and prayed till I--I shouted, but yet still..."
I said, "Brother, every one of those things are correct; every one of them are good. Holding up your hand, speaking with tongues, shouting, I believe in every bit of it, but yet that's not the thing. See, it's accepting the Person, Christ Jesus." See? See, it's not...
These things are attributes. Shouting, speaking in tongues, running, shouting, crying, praying, whatever, that's just attributes that follow. The first thing is to accept the Person, Christ Jesus. See? So there's no--there's no evidence that we could say. Because a man cries? I've seen man cry and cry, and cry crocodile tears, and he's still just as big a sinner as he could be.

L-84-160 Listen, Jesus has nothing but sheep. Is that right? The shepherd knows his sheep. Anybody in here ever hear a goat cry? Brother, you better be a shepherd if you want to know the difference. A goat will cry just exactly like a sheep. Uh-huh. Let a little old billy goat get hung up out there somewhere, and a little sheep on one side going "Baa," and then "Baa," just the same.
And I've heard them down at the altar just a-crying and crying, "O God..." sobbing away like that, "O God..." and a goat all the time. That's right. Shouting? Well, my, I've seen them shout till they just... And they run across the floor and jump up-and-down and shout...

L-85-162 Now, you say, "Brother Branham, you don't believe in crying." Don't take me wrong. Sure, I believe in crying. But I'm saying that's not no evidence (See?), 'cause they both cry. I've seen them shout just as hard as they could shout. Yes, sir. And just a-carrying on like that... There's a long ways; you know what I'm talking about. I've heard them speak with tongues, go out and live any kind of a life, just do anything. That was no sign.
But you say, "Well, you're against it."
No, I'm, not. I believe in speaking in tongues; it's God's gift in the church. If I'd take it out, I'd take a part of God out. If I take my tongue--my tongue out of my body here, I wouldn't have a complete body. The Body of Jesus Christ has tongues in it. The Body of Jesus Christ here has tongues; and you take it out, take part of Christ out. But you still can't say that that's the body. See, see, see?


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